By Atharva Weling
Wayland Post Intern
Four weeks ago, Nick Lombardi stepped into the role of Information Technology (IT) Director for the Town of Wayland. In that time, he began building on the work of prior town IT professionals to modernize the system and better equip Wayland’s online infrastructure for potential hazards.
Lombardi’s career began in the private sector, where he worked in software and cloud hosting organizations. Most recently, he worked at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. “Moving to a municipality is really something that provides me an opportunity to have a more direct impact at a local level,” he said.
In his first month in Wayland, Lombardi embarked on a “discovery” of the town’s current technology environment, analyzing everything from software to hardware to assorted IT configurations. He now plans to step into a variety of directives, beginning with a comprehensive risk assessment of the town’s security plans for incident response, data recovery and continued operations.
“In this environment, it’s critical that we understand what our posture is, any risks that we have, and remediation steps for addressing those risks,” Lombardi said. “My greatest fear coming into this position is a ransomware attack, so I want to ensure that our environment is configured in a way that we are minimizing vulnerabilities.”
For Lombardi, improving the town’s risk readiness goes beyond making plans; it also means intentional, broad-based preparation. His primary goal is to transition all backup and contingency planning solutions from “on-premises” to the cloud, providing greater resilience and scalability in the event of a crisis such as ransomware attacks.
“The other [major effort] is going paperless,” he said. This will entail automating a variety of manual, paper-based procedures with online solutions, which Lombardi hopes will enhance workflow evaluation and feedback from all departments. For example, he has already contributed to establishing an online system for the application and review of permits for Wayland residents.
Lombardi initiated dialogue with IT directors from surrounding municipalities to improve best practices in his department and incorporate any major trends. He met with his counterparts in Ashland and Framingham; now he plans to meet with Sudbury’s IT director and contact those in Concord, Lincoln and Weston.
“I am a collaborative person; I like to collaborate not only within the organization but with other cities and towns within the state,” Lombardi said. “Working with other IT directors provides me insight into how a municipality operates.”
